Management team

Olivier Hersent – CEO & CTO

Olivier is a recognized telecom and technology expert. He founded NetCentrex, a leading provider of VoIP infrastructure for service providers, then became CTO of Comverse after the acquisition of NetCentrex in 2006. Olivier is a recognized thought leader in Telecoms and Energy markets. He is the author of several books on networking technology, VoIP, M2M, Internet of Things(IoT) and the Smart Grid. Olivier graduated from Ecole Polytechnique. Olivier founded Actility, IoT solution provider, in 2010. Via its ThingPark Wireless platform, Actility uses the Lora technology to enable LPWA IoT networks for applications such as Smart Cities.

Nicolas brings over 15 years of experience in business development and marketing in the world of IT and telecoms. He was a co-founder of NetCentrex and served as Development Director. Nicolas also headed the hosting division of Comverse IP Business Unit. Prior to that Nicolas was head of the electronic advertising platform for Hachette Filipacchi group. Nicolas graduated from New York University, Paris Dauphine and Paris Assas (MBA).

Boris Dezier – Senior Vice President Sales & Co-founder

Boris is a highly experienced sales and business executive with a solid knowledge of the telecommunications industry. Prior to Actility, he worked for 10 years for NetCentrex and Comverse where he was successively General Manager, Central & Eastern Europe for NetCentrex, AVP EMEA and AVP APAC for Comverse. Boris was also part of the Telecom Division of Sagem as OEM Sales Manager. Boris is an ESIEE graduate and owns an eMBA from HEC.

Christophe François – Senior Vice President Marketing & Digital

Christophe François leads the Actility Marketing, the development of Thingpark™ marketing developer program and marketplace. Christophe pioneered the launches of mobile internet services in Europe with Phone.com, and mobile Java™ platforms with Esmertec. He spent the last 10 years with Orange where he built its smartphone application portfolio, partner program, and enterprise mobility partnerships. Christophe started his career with Bain & Company, and holds Masters in Industrial Engineering from University of Illinois, and Civil Engineering from Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées.

Boris Lacroix – Senior Vice President Products

Boris leads the development of products derived from our pioneering ThingPark IoT platform, working alongside Olivier Hersent. He brings to Actility over 20 years experience developing innovative products and services in mobile internet, digital music, and big data. Boris most recently was CEO and co-founder of Sensorly, which has created a market in big data analytics for mobile operators based on crowd-sourced data. Prior to starting Sensorly, Boris was the CEO of Digiplug. During his 7 years leading Digiplug, he drove the company transformation to a provider of digital supply chain solutions and led its sale to Accenture. Boris previoulsy held product management roles at Phone.com and SFR where he started his carreer.

Bernard Jannes – Vice-President R&D & Co-founder

Bernard drives R&D activities in close collaboration with Olivier Hersent. Bernard has an extensive experience in complex infrastructures with distributed architecture, deployed for large-scale mission-critical applications. He was co-founder and R&D Director of NetCentrex. Bernard developed VoIP solution used by more than 6 million people worldwide. Previously, Bernard managed R&D projects for Orange, and customer projects for Cap Gemini. Bernard graduated from Rennes II University.

Pedro Da Silva – Vice President Customer Deployment and Operations

Pedro Da Silva joined Actility in June of 2011 as Director of Professional Services. Previously Pedro spent more than 15 years in heading international projects for NetCentrex and Comverse, rolling out carrier-grade platforms for telecoms operators in South Korea, Japan and Australia. Pedro has also led R&D and operations teams in charge of VoIp and Call Center products in India and Malaysia for more than 8 years.

Richard Le Piouffle – Finance Director

Richard leads our accounting and finance department. Prior to joining the team, he was a senior Manager of the EY Transaction Services practice in Paris, having worked at EY for 12 years. He started his career as an auditor in 2005, and conducted statutory audits of family-owned and listed companies, and consulting assignments in several countries. From 2010, Richard focused on transaction services, and led numerous buy- and sell-side due diligence reviews for both corporate clients and private equity companies. Richard holds a master’s degree from Grenoble Ecole de Management.